Girl wins first case against harasser in Upper Egypt

CAIRO - 23 February 2018: Qena Criminal Court sentenced a harasser to three years in prison last Thursday for sexually assaulting 23-year-old Rania Fahmy.

“It all started while I was out on an August Friday to do some shopping for my house, when a guy sexually harassed me in the street. I shouted at him but he started to beat me so I hit him with my handbag,” Fahmy told Egyptian presenter Wael el-Abrashy during his daily show “10 p.m.” on Dream TV.

Fahmy explained that some pedestrians tried to cover up for the harasser and aid him in escaping.

Intending to take further legal action against the harasser, Fahmy used the CCTV recordings from a nearby shop to where the incident occurred and took it to the police.

The video of Fahmy and the harasser went viral on different social media platforms where most of the comments expressed support for her and her brave retaliation against the defendant.
Fahmy is an upper Egyptian girl from Qena, an Upper Egyptian governorate with strict traditions and customs mostly derived from religion. She graduated from the Sciences Faculty and lives with her mother and three sisters in one of Qena’s villages.

Although this is the first harassment case brought to court in Upper Egypt, it is not the first in Egypt. The first harassment case in Egypt was in 2008 when Noha Ostadh filed a case against Sharif Gomaa who harassed her from his car as he drove slowly alongside her.

The first harassment law in Egypt was issued in June 2014 during the rule of the temporary president Adly Mansour, it states that the minimum term of imprisonment for the criminal is six months and/or a minimum fine of LE 3,000 and no more than LE 5,000.

Ahmed Abd el-Moghny, a lawyer for the Women’s Center for Guidance and Awareness declared that the judgment can be seen as a deterrent for others as the harasser committed an outrageous act in public, according to Al Masry Al Youm newspaper.